Martinez Urges Changes in Charter, Municipal Code : Committee Asked to Reconsider Write-In Prohibitions

Calling the write-in procedure a “safety valve,” San Diego City Councilman Uvaldo Martinez on Tuesday asked the council’s Rules Committee to reconsider the municipal code and charter prohibitions against write-ins for local primary and general elections.

In his request to Mayor Roger Hedgecock, Martinez wrote, “San Diegans, no less than residents of every other major city in California, should be allowed to cast a write-in ballot in local elections.”

The issue will be discussed in the Rules Committee Monday, an aide to Martinez said.

Section 27.2205 of the municipal code states, “No write-in candidates shall be permitted. A ballot containing the name of any person not printed on the official ballot shall be counted as if the name added did not appear.”

If the council decides to change the municipal code to allow write-in candidates, the issue would have to go before the voters for a change in the city charter. “I would like to put it on the November election,” Martinez said.

Martinez said he would like to see the city act before April 10, when oral arguments will begin before the California Supreme Court in Canaan vs. Abdelnour. Prohibition of write-in candidates raised the ire of San Diegan Jack Canaan, who during the 1984 mayoral race decided to test the prohibition in court. Canaan, with attorney and former Councilman Mike Schaefer, enlisted the help of Bill Brotherton, who declared that he would be willing to run as a write-in candidate and would serve if elected.

Canaan said he brought the case to court because he wanted to help Hedgecock by diluting the number of votes other mayoral candidates would receive. But, he said, he also is philosophically opposed to the restrictions because “the voters should not be disenfranchised from the write-in.”